But the trade deficit in January widened to $8 billion, after hitting a three-year low of $2.6 billion in December, and has reached $89 billion for the April-January period.

"On the whole, the export performance is pretty good and it is expected to cross $200 billion in February 2011 and it will cross $220 billion during this fiscal," Rahul Khullar said in a statement.

India's fiscal year begins in April and ends in March.

The April-January exports rose an annual 29.4 percent to $184.6 billion, while imports for the period provisionally grew 17.6 percent to $273.6 billion. Imports in January were at $28.6 billion.